Customising charts

You can fully customise your charts with indicators, grids and period separators and can add and remove these as you see fit. Here are some useful keyboard shortcuts for easy removals:

Hiding the bid line
If you use a lot of technical analysis, the bid line can become rather obtrusive. To remove the bid line you can set the colour of the line to ‘None’, completely removing it from the chart.

Setting the default chart
Once you have a chart you’re happy with, you can save it as a template. The quickest and easiest way to do this is by right-clicking on the chart and selecting “Template”, followed by “Save Template”. You can have as many templates as you like to match all of your trading strategies.
If you have a preferred template that you wish to save as your default, you can do this by right-clicking on the chart, selecting “Template”, “Save As” and then “Default”.

Customising toolbars

Many of the toolbar functionalities can be distracting and you may find you don’t use all of them. With MT4 you can add in or hide as many features as you want. There are four separate toolbars available:

Standard

Chart studies

Line studies

Time frames

You can move toolbars around by simply dragging them to wherever you’d like them to be.

To customise what you view, you can simply right-click on the toolbar and click on the customise sub-menu. Here you can remove functions that aren’t required by un-ticking them.

By using the customise feature on each toolbar, you can access hidden tools, while removing any you don’t require. Through this technique, you can end up with a much cleaner and more compact user interface.

Using shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts are a quick and easy way to perform tasks. By using shortcuts, you can have faster access to tools – saving plenty of time in the long run. You can remove redundant information and functionalities, and most importantly increase your charting space.
The following keyboard shortcuts can help to navigate your way around the platform easier:

Terminal

Control+T

This is the main window you use while trading – manage open orders, view account history and set alerts

Navigator

Control+N

Add Indicators, Expert Advisors and log in

Market Watch

Control+M

View available instruments

Data Window

Control+D

View all data for the product currently in the chart window

You can use the following shortcuts when analysing and trading, which can greatly improve the process speed of your trading:

+

Zoom in

-

Zoom out

Control+F

Crosshair

Control+Drag

Copy objects

Alt+Drag

Extend objects

Alt+T

One-click trading

Hotkeys

User-defined shortcuts

These are the shortcuts for the more visual aspects of your charts:

F8

Edit chart graphics

F9

Order panel

F11

Full screen chart

Alt+1

Bar charts

Alt+2

Candlestick charts

Alt+3

Line charts

Using hotkeys

In MT4, when you switch your chart templates, you’ll lose any current analysis on your charts. To prevent this, you can leave your price charts open and just change the indicators that you use – this is where hotkeys come into play. You can assign a hotkey to place a certain indicator on your charts, instead of needing to change the template.

To assign a hotkey to an indicator, simply right-click on the indicator on the navigator window and select “Hotkey”.

Favourites indicators list
To streamline the number of indicators that are available to you, you can create a favourites list. Here’s how you can add indicators to your favourites list:

Open Navigator (Control+N)

Open relevant tab (Indicators, Scripts etc)

Hover mouse over desired favourite

Right-click on your mouse

Select ‘Add to favourites’

Alerts

Alerts allow you to keep track of important price levels being breached, and can further enhance your analysis and chart organisation. If you track multiple markets, it can become easy to lose track of the markets, especially after an important event and all the markets move their separate ways.
To set up alerts, move your mouse to the area on the chart you’d like to set the alert at, right-click on the position, select ‘Trading’ and then ‘Alert’.

Risk warning for retail traders: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69.1% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Risk warning for qualified professional traders: Derivative products are leveraged products and can result in losses that exceed initial deposits. Please ensure you fully understand the risks associated with a professional trading account. Tax laws depend on individual circumstances and may differ in a jurisdiction other than the UK.

The information on this site is not directed at residents of the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Belgium or any particular country outside the UK and is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person in any country or jurisdiction where such distribution or use would be contrary to local law or regulation.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.
69.1% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

69.1% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.